At a time I was quieted, and my thoughts still bore a semblance of sanity. I went about my days and nights just as I did the days before: Doing my best to learn what I could, putting my all into my labors of love and toiling in quiet shame for the blackness which coveted my soul. I did not know you or even care to notice your envy and hatred; you who's appetite for gold and power consumed thee. I did not desire a battle or war. I did not seek the strife which you gave birth to, the strife which ended only in broken lives and hearts. But there you were! You watched me and my loved ones. You stalked me and the source of my happiness. You schemed and plotted against me. You wished to end me.
But heaven was not so cruel this time, for it warned me of your plan. I caught you while you hunted me, and you knew your prey was wiser. I disappeared from my dwelling and I faded into the streets. I evaded you, I bested you, I angered you. For days I hid from your eyes. For days I silenced my steps. For I feared what destruction you had in store for me. I feared the pain you would inflict upon me. I feared what I did not know. So I hid and hid well. But little did I know that as I searched for the answers to why you sought my demise, you were already conspiring to draw me out. Yet I drew you out first and cornered you. I was to question you and perhaps form a pact of peace or even just an unsteady treaty at best. But you would have none of my words, none of my pleadings. You fought hard as did I but I was a step ahead, 5 days more afraid and a heartbeat faster. And at that I sent you back to your maker.
As I searched your belongings I came across your plans, and my eyes were open to the greater more frightening truth. It became clear to me that I had only slain one of the eight hydra's heads, the hydra that was yourself. I saw your plots which were now scattered papers and images on the floor, or dark words and sights captured within glowing screens. You had planned to harm my loves, to wrest them from my embrace and extinguish them. All to draw me out. All to find me. All to end me.
It took but a moment between my inhale and exhale for my fear and doubt to change into anger and resolve. And before I had swallowed the blood inside my mouth, I too desired to end thee and all of thee.
So I gathered myself and my tools of battle. And though I shook with rage as my temper washed over me like boiling water, I slowly planned my actions and had sown my deceit through the guise of your severed head. I visited my loves and bid my secret goodbyes. Then I began my sojourn towards your domain alone, with only thoughts of what could become of me and that which I protected haunting me. The closer I inched towards you the closer my soul was to oblivion. My heart and my mind cried out in unison: "This suffering will be a small price to pay for the safeguarding of our treasures! Rend them, tear them, crush them, end them!" and then I knew that the wounds I would inflict upon my soul would scar it for eternity. And the moment I had arrived and found you, stalked you, watched you; the moment where I, your prey, bared his fangs- I knew that on the night to follow your blood would stain my hands, your muffled cries of death would fill my ears, the dulling of your eyes would be etched in my memories, the tears of your loved ones would wash over my head and their curses I would tread upon all the days of my life. "A small price to pay" said my heart, "a meager fee to surrender" said my mind. No longer did I give myself thought or care, even if it was my destruction that would ensure the protection of my beloved treasures then so be it! My teeth are bared, my eyes reflecting only the red darkness to come and my lungs full only of the darkness which I so readily inhaled. You should have known better, ye of many heads. You should have been wiser, you who wanted to slay me- But nay, you were neither. Thus, too late did you discover that all it took to seal your fate was to wake the demons in me.
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